Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they happened.
Cabinet meeting on Gaza war ends without decision, reports say
A cabinet meeting to discuss the war in Gaza and attempt to reach a hostage deal has ended without a decision, Hebrew media reports.
Another discussion has been scheduled for tomorrow, the reports say.
Shaked, seen chatting with Liberman, said pushing for opposition to ‘join forces’ for next election
Ex-justice minister Ayelet Shaked, a longtime political ally of former prime minister Naftali Bennett, is photographed sitting and chatting with Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman over a glass of wine.
According to national broadcaster Kan, Shaked is pushing for opposition parties to “join forces” in preparation for the next national election. Speaking with Channel 12 over the weekend, Bennett said that his new political party, known by the interim name of Bennett 2026, has not decided on a candidate list yet and declined to confirm or deny whether he would run together with Shaked.
While Shaked was not listed among the founders of the new party when it was registered, she is widely expected to join.
Last month, Channel 12 reported that, in an apparent effort to prevent a repeat of the defections that brought down his previous government, Bennett has structured his party so that he will be able to maintain complete control over it for the better part of the coming decade — including by retaining a monopoly on the selection of candidates.
Liberman and Bennett were photographed meeting last year and Liberman told The Times of Israel in late 2024 that, while no decision on a partnership had yet been made, “if we see in the polls that running together will bring more seats, we will run together [and] if we see that separately [we can] bring more seats, we will run separately.”
A poll taken last week found that if elections were held today, the current pro-Netanyahu coalition bloc would win only 49 of the Knesset’s 120 seats while the opposition parties would win 61.
Netanyahu’s Likud was forecasted to win 26 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, up four from prewar polls, while Bennett 2026 would win 24 seats.
על כוס יין: יממה אחרי שבנט רמז שאינו מחוייב לה – תיעוד הפגישה היום בין ליברמן לשקד בתל אביב. שקד דוחפת לאיחוד מפלגות בימין מול נתניהו (ליברמן, בנט ועוד) https://t.co/V6zvNeAYru pic.twitter.com/i1HMPNVerh
— מיכאל שמש Michael Shemesh (@shemeshmicha) June 29, 2025
Top adviser to Khamenei claims planned Israeli strike on Iran’s top leaders ‘didn’t happen’
Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, delivers a statement after meeting with Lebanon's parliament speaker in Beirut on November 15, 2024. (AFP)
Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claims Israel did not carry out a planned operation to assassinate Iran’s top leadership in an airstrike during its 12-day war, in an Iranian media interview.
“Israelis had located a meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and planned to strike it to kill the heads of the three branches of power, then assassinate the supreme leader to finish off Iran altogether, but that didn’t happen,” Larijani says, according to a translation by Iran International.
Larijani also says that on June 12, he received a threat to leave Iran within 12 hours or he would share the fate of other top officials killed by Israel.
Macron says he told Pezeshkian to return to nuclear talks, allow IAEA to resume inspections
France's President Emmanuel Macron holds a press conference after working sessions at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, on June 26, 2025. (NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron says he held a phone conversation with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
He says in a post on X that his message was for a return to the negotiating table to address ballistic and nuclear issues, and for the resumption of the IAEA’s work in Iran.
Trump posts article on delay to Netanyahu’s trial after demanding hearings end
US President Donald Trump posts an article on Truth Social about the postponement of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial this week, after demanding that the proceedings end.
The Jerusalem District Court earlier today agreed to cancel Netanyahu’s scheduled days of testimony in his criminal trial for this week, after Netanyahu, backed by the heads of IDF Military Intelligence and Mossad, appeared before the judges in a closed-door hearing to lay out the reasons the hearings must be put off, and not due to Trump’s demand.
Iran’s UN envoy says there’s no threat to IAEA officials after newspaper calls for Grossi’s execution
Iranian Permanent Representative to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani (C) speaks during a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting in New York on June 22, 2025. (Bryan R. SMITH / AFP)
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran says it posed no threat to the head of the UN nuclear watchdog and its inspectors after an Iranian newspaper called for the execution of the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.
“No, there is not any threat” against the inspectors or the director general, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, says in an interview with US broadcaster CBS when asked about calls in an ultra-conservative newspaper for the agency’s chief to be executed as a spy. The ambassador says inspectors in Iran were “in safe conditions.”
Golan’s status not discussed in talks with Israel, main concern is pullout from buffer zone, Syrian official says
An Israeli military vehicle crosses the fence, returning from the buffer zone with Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, on December 10, 2024. (Jalaa MAREY / AFP)
Syria has not brought up the issue of the Golan Heights in negotiations with Israel, with its main concern being the withdrawal of IDF troops from the buffer zone created in the south of the country, after the fall of president Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a Syrian official tells the Kan public broadcaster.
The official says that “the contact between Israel and Syria could be very meaningful,” and that the current government in Damascus is opposed to Iran and its proxy terror groups, Hezbollah and Hamas.”
“The issue of the Golan hasn’t even come up yet in the discussions. It is still early. But the Americans are a key factor here,” the official says.
The Assad regime had demanded that Israel withdraw from the Golan Heights, which it conquered in 1967 and then annexed in 1981, in exchange for a potential peace with the Jewish state.
The buffer zone, however, refers to a UN-patrolled buffer zone that was intended to keep Israeli and Syrian forces apart, which Israel took control of after forces loyal to Assad’s government abandoned their positions before rebel groups reached Damascus in December.
The United Nations considers Israel’s takeover of the buffer zone a violation of the 1974 disengagement accord. Israel says the accord had fallen apart since one of the sides was no longer in a position to implement it.
TV report: Netanyahu dismissed IDF chief’s assessment military close to defeating Hamas
In a discussion four days before the Israeli operation against Iran, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we are about to say that we defeated Hamas,” Channel 12 reports.
“We didn’t defeat anything,” Netanyahu responded. “They are holding 25% [of Gaza] and 20 hostages.”
According to the report, Zamir asked for a directive on what to prepare for in the next stage of the war in Gaza.
In a separate discussion before the Iran campaign, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich complained that Zamir had committed to moving Gaza’s civilian population to humanitarian zones, but that had not happened.
Disagreements over the fight against Hamas took a backseat during the 12-day bombing campaign against Iran, but Netanyahu is holding a cabinet meeting tonight on the Gaza war, and pre-existing arguments are likely to re-emerge.
‘Breakthrough’ reportedly brought Iran closer to the bomb than Israel previously thought
Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets fly over Israel en route to carry out strikes in Iran, in a handout photo published on June 25, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
One of the main reasons that prompted Israel to attack Iran this month was a deeply worrying “breakthrough” by Iran in its nuclear weapons program that would have enabled it to build a nuclear bomb in a much shorter time than Israel had previously believed, Channel 12 reports.
A group of scientists were working secretively on the development of nuclear weapons in a manner that “deeply troubled” Israeli experts and decision-makers, the report says, noting that it is broadcasting the news within the limitations of Israeli military censorship.
There was a need to thwart this initiative and target the scientists involved, the report says. The scientists “were indeed eliminated.”
The Iranian breakthrough, combined with the fact that Iran had stockpiled 408 kilograms (900 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 percent, the report says, meant Israel assessed that Iran could break out to the bomb far more quickly than previously estimated.
Iranian government officials say US strikes on nuclear sites less effective than expected – report
In conversations intercepted by the United States, Iranian government officials say that US strikes on its nuclear facilities have been less destructive than they expected, four people familiar with classified intelligence tell The Washington Post.
The conversations that were “intended to be private,” according to the report, revealed that Iranian officials were wondering why the attacks were not as destructive as they thought they would be.
Last week, an Israeli official with knowledge of intelligence told Axios that Iranian military officials were downplaying the damage caused by strikes in their reports to the government.
This may explain the contrast with assessments given by Israeli and American leaders and officials, who say the damage to Iran’s nuclear program was significant.
IDF footage shows settler stone-throwing attack on troops in West Bank
The IDF releases footage showing the moments a military patrol was subject to massive stone-throwing by Israeli settlers, in the West Bank, overnight between Friday and Saturday.
The incident took place at 12:37 a.m., some six kilometers (3.72 miles) from where a battalion commander and his forces were physically assaulted by settlers less than two hours earlier.
After coming under attack from 10-to-20 masked suspects who were hiding on a hill in an ambush, the commanding officer of the patrol ordered troops to make a U-turn, according to an IDF probe. The officer then briefly got out of the vehicle and fired three warning shots in the air, according to army protocol, to try and stop the stone throwing.
The officer advanced toward the masked suspects to continue a “suspect arrest procedure,” when he realized it was Jews and not Palestinians, as one shouted at him in Hebrew: “I’ll shoot you in the head, you son of a whore.”
The suspects then all fled the area.
Around half an hour later, at 1:03 a.m., a 14-year-old Israeli boy was brought to a nearby army post with a bullet in his shoulder, was treated by army medics and Magen David Adom, and taken to a hospital.
The settlers who brought him to the army post refused to provide any details on the circumstances of his injury, according to the military.
The IDF says the officer did not directly fire at anyone during the incident, and the bullet lodged in the young boy will be examined.
The military says it may be possible that one of the warning shots in the air hit the boy, but stresses that the officer acted completely according to protocol.
“If a person who threatens our forces is hit, it’s his problem. What is a 14-year-old boy doing masked and throwing stones at an army patrol?” a senior officer says.
PM: Iran war opened broad regional possibilities, ‘first we need to free the hostages’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Shin Bet staff, June 29, 2025. (Video screenshot)
Visiting a Shin Bet facility in southern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel’s operation against Iran has opened up many opportunities, including “broad regional possibilities.”
“First of all, [we need] to free the hostages,” he says. “Of course, we will also have to solve the Gaza issue, to defeat Hamas, but I believe that we will achieve both tasks.”
Netanyahu meets with “S.,” the acting head of the domestic intelligence organization.
S. says that the Shin Bet thwarted an average of two significant Iranian attempts to direct attacks inside Israel every day of the campaign against Tehran’s nuclear program, leaving them with “zero successes” in that effort during the war.
Netanyahu is holding his cabinet meeting now in the IDF Southern Command Headquarters in Beersheba.
Iran blasts Trump’s ‘offensive remarks and undignified behavior’ toward Khamenei
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemns what it calls “the offensive remarks and undignified behavior of the president of the United States regarding the supreme leader and the people of Iran.”
The statement, as quoted by Iran International, says that Trump’s comments “deeply wounded the sentiments of hundreds of millions of Muslims in the region and around the world.”
“Undoubtedly, these insulting and bullying remarks and actions against Iran and the respected political and religious figures of Iranians and Muslims will only intensify disgust and hatred toward America’s short-sighted policies and further discredit its claims of seeking dialogue and engagement.”
Trump on Friday said Khamenei made a “blatant and foolish” statement when he threatened to repeat the “slap” Tehran had dealt American forces in the region when it fired missiles at a US base in Qatar in response to the bombing of its nuclear sites.
“You have to tell the truth,” Trump also said of Khamenei. “You got beat to hell.”
Rabbi who met Syria’s Sharaa says meeting with Netanyahu possible with Trump’s help
Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa receives Saudi Arabia's foreign minister in Damascus, Syria, on May 31, 2025. (SANA / AFP)
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an American rabbi who held talks this month with Syria’s Islamist leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, tells the Kan public broadcaster that a meeting is possible between Sharaa and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with US President Donald Trump’s help.
“I think the only way that would be a quick way is if someone named [US President] Donald Trump calls two people, the Israeli prime minister and the Syrian president, to come to Washington and sit for a few hours. That could change the picture,” he says.
“If Trump signals that he is going to stay involved and tell Sharaa, I am going to help rehabilitate your country, then anything is possible. Without that, it will go slowly, step by step,” Cooper says.
“It is correct that he is an Islamist,” Cooper says of Sharaa, “but Sharaa speaks about a future for his country that includes a united Syria with one army and equal rights. If he can do this, this will change the rules of the game.”
Recent reports have indicated that the Syria new government has not ruled out reaching a normalization deal with Israel.
US envoy says there’s a ‘necessity’ for Syria and Lebanon to reach peace deals with Israel
ISTANBUL, Turkey — With the Israel-Iran war opening up a new road for the Mideast, Syria and Lebanon need to reach peace agreements with Israel, the US special envoy to Syria says.
“President (Ahmed) al-Sharaa has indicated that he doesn’t hate Israel… and that he wants peace on that border. I think that will also happen with Lebanon. It’s a necessity to have an agreement with Israel,” Tom Barrack says in an interview with Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu.
Haifa oil refinery resumes operations after shutdown due to Iranian missile strike
Damage at the Bazan Group's oil refinery in the Haifa Bay after it was hit by an Iranian missile overnight June 15-16, 2025. (Used in accordance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
Israel’s Oil Refineries says it has partly resumed activities at its Haifa facility, which was shut down following an Iranian missile strike two weeks ago.
Israel’s Oil Refineries, or Bazan, says in a regulatory filing in Tel Aviv that it was gradually restoring operations and would likely be fully operational by October. It noted that it holds insurance covering damage and profit losses of up to $250 million caused by acts of terrorism and war.
The company said on June 15 that its pipelines and transmission lines in Haifa had been damaged by Iranian missile strikes, which killed three employees, and that it was examining the impact of the damage on its operations and implications on its financial results.
Energy Minister Eli Cohen says separately that Israel’s energy system “functioned flawlessly throughout the war, and the swift resolution of the issue at Bazan is further proof of the strength and resilience of Israel’s energy sector.”
US envoy says Turkey to have key role on ‘new road’ for Mideast after Israel-Iran war
US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack looks on during his meeting with Lebanon's prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, on June 19, 2025. (Anwar AMRO / AFP)
ISTANBUL, Turkey — The Israel-Iran war has opened the way to a “new road” for the Middle East in which Turkey will have a key role to play, Washington’s envoy to Turkey says.
“What just happened between Israel and Iran is an opportunity for all of us to say: Time out. Let’s create a new road, (and) Turkiye is key in that new road,” Ambassador Tom Barrack, who is also the US special envoy to Syria, tells the Anadolu state news agency.
Trump: Iran’s nuclear program ‘obliterated,’ bombs penetrated Fordo ‘like it was butter’
Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated like nobody’s ever seen before,” says US President Donald Trump in an interview with Fox News.
“That meant the end to their nuclear ambitions, at least for a period of time,” Trump says, a week after US planes bombed three key nuclear facilities in Iran.
“The bomb went through it like it was butter, like it was absolute butter,” he says of the underground Fordo facility.
“It’s just thousands of tons of rock in that room right now. The whole place was just destroyed,” says Trump.
The president insists that the Iranians didn’t move highly enriched uranium out of the Fordo site before the attack. “I think first it was very hard to do. It’s very dangerous to do. It’s very heavy, very, very heavy. It’s a very hard thing to do. Plus, we didn’t give much notice because they didn’t know we were coming until just then.”
Iran was “weeks away” from achieving a nuclear weapon, Trump says. Tehran is not about to restart its nuclear program, he argues. “The last thing they want to do right now is think about nuclear. They have to put themselves back into condition and shape.”
Trump says that more countries will make peace with Israel as a result of the US and Israeli campaign against Iran.
“We have some really great countries in there right now,” he says, “and I think we’re going to start loading them up because Iran was the primary problem. I actually thought Iran would… I actually thought we had a period of time where I thought Iran would join the Abraham Accords along with everybody else.”
HAPPENING NOW: @realDonaldTrump sits down with @MariaBartiromo in exclusive FOX News interview pic.twitter.com/AybiFatumG
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 29, 2025
Blast at Iranian refinery caused by nitrogen tank
A blast and smoke rising at Iran’s northwestern Tabriz refinery were caused by the explosion of a nitrogen tank, Iranian state media says.
There were no casualties in the incident, and the refinery continues to operate normally, the report adds.
IDF officer promoted to major general before entering role of Operations Directorate chief
Itzik Cohen, the former commander of the 162nd Division, at a ceremony marking his promotion to the rank of major general ahead of entering the role of chief of the Operations Directorate, in Tel Aviv, June 29, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Itzik Cohen, the former commander of the 162nd Division, is promoted to the rank of major general ahead of entering the role of chief of the Operations Directorate later this week.
A ceremony is held at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, attended by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Cohen’s family.
Cohen will be replacing Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, who has served as Operations Directorate chief since 2021, on Thursday.
Government greenlights immediate return of eight Gaza border communities
Destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, 2023, near the Israeli-Gaza border, southern Israel, seen on January 21, 2024. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)
The government declares that there is henceforth no military ban stopping any Gaza border residents from returning home.
But some communities — Nahal Oz, Kissufim, Holit, Kfar Aza, and Be’eri — will have to continue living in temporary accommodation until their villages have been rehabilitated and rendered fit for habitation.
The lifting of the military ban, combined with the completion of essential building works, means that starting today, residents of Kerem Shalom, Re’im, Nirim, Ein Hashlosha, Sufa, Nir Yitzhak, and Netiv Ha’asara will be able to return home.
State rental subsidies for these communities will end on July 31, but will continue for residents still in temporary accommodation until their villages have been declared fit for habitation.
In August, essential works are expected to be completed in Nahal Oz, enabling members to return before the start of the next school year.
A green light for Kibbutz Kissufim to go home is expected in November, with Holit, Kfar Aza, and Be’eri following in 2026.
Netanyahu to hold high-level meeting on Gaza war, hostage deal efforts tonight
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a meeting on the war in Gaza and attempts to reach a hostage deal tonight at the IDF Southern Command headquarters in Beersheba.
The meeting will be attended by Defense Minister Israel Katz and other ministers, Netanyahu’s aides, and senior IDF officers.
Far-right deputy minister quits role to return to Knesset to push bill to create new airport in south
Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen in the Knesset, January 20, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Deputy Minister for Artificial Intelligence Almog Cohen (Otzma Yehudit) resigns from the government less than three months after being appointed.
The far-right politician aims to return to the Knesset in order to advance legislation to establish an airport in the southern moshav of Nevatim.
“The Deep State is mistaken in thinking that it is the sovereign, that it will determine where the airport…will be built,” he declares. “I am returning to the Knesset to bring the cross-party bill to establish an airport in Nevatim to a vote in second and third reading — [it is] a national project that will create tens of thousands of jobs and make the Negev flourish for generations.”
“Any MK — from the right or the left — who does not support the law will be held accountable to the residents of the Negev and the valley,” Cohen adds.
Cohen’s return to his old Knesset seat will push out Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot under the so-called Norwegian Law.
Following an extended period of conflict with his own Otzma Yehudit party, Cohen was appointed to a deputy ministerial position in early April so that he would resign as a lawmaker under the law, which allows a number of cabinet members and deputy ministers from each government party to resign their Knesset seats while they hold their ministerial posts.
This allowed for the return of Religious Zionism MK Zvi Sukkot, and prevented the planned resignation of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had announced he would reclaim his own Knesset seat — pushing out Otzma Yehudit lawmaker Yitzhak Kroizer.
When Otzma Yehudit’s Amichai Eliyahu became heritage minister in 2023, Kroizer became an MK under the Norwegian Law.
Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism ran on a joint slate in the 2022 national election but subsequently split — largely due to personal disagreements between their two far-right chairmen.
When Otzma Yehudit quit the coalition in January over the government’s approval of a ceasefire-hostage release deal, Eliyahu’s resignation from the cabinet forced the ouster of Sukkot, who held a lower spot on the two parties’ joint electoral list than Kroizer.
Following Otzma Yehudit’s return to the coalition in March, none of its ministers resigned under the Norwegian Law in order to bring back Sukkot, angering Religious Zionism, which accused Otzma Yehudit of violating an agreement between the parties.
IDF says soldier killed today by explosive device in north Gaza fighting
Sgt. Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, 20, of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion. (Israel Defense Forces)
An IDF soldier was killed during fighting in the northern Gaza Strip today, the military announces.
The slain soldier is named as Sgt. Yisrael Natan Rosenfeld, 20, of the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, from Ra’anana.
According to an initial IDF probe, Rosenfeld was killed by an explosive device during operations in the Kafr Jabalia area.
Police evacuate some northern residents due to wildfires
Police evacuate residents from the scene of a developing wildfire in Haifa's Halisa neighborhood on June 29, 2025. (Israel Police)
Police are evacuating some residents in northern Israel amid two quickly spreading wildfires in the region, first responders say.
One of the wildfires, which firefighters update is now under control, scorched four buildings and one mobile home in Haifa’s Halisa neighborhood, as police evacuated residents in the surrounding area.
Coastal District fire service commander Zvika Moyal says at the scene in Haifa that eight planes operated to put out the fires, alongside “many squads that came both from within the [Coastal] district as well as other districts.”
Since gaining control over the blazes, the fire service kept only two planes and 19 squads on the scene. The fire has not yet been completely extinguished.
Further east, ten firefighting squads are working alongside six planes to extinguish blazes that broke out near Kibbutz Hukok. Police evacuated the first row of houses nearest to the flames, a law enforcement spokesman says.
Iran calls on UN to recognize Israel and US as aggressors in 12-day war
A plume of heavy smoke and fire rise from an oil refinery in southern Tehran, Iran, after it was hit in an overnight Israeli strike, on June 15, 2025. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran demands that the United Nations recognize Israel and the United States as being to blame for their recent 12-day war, in a letter to the secretary-general published today.
“We officially request hereby that the Security Council recognise the Israeli regime and the United States as the initiators of the act of aggression and acknowledge their subsequent responsibility, including the payment of compensation and reparations,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi writes in the letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Senior Israeli official says Israel working actively on Gaza hostage deal
Demonstrators protest for the release of hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, outside the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, June 28, 2025. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)
Israel continues to work actively on a hostage release/ceasefire deal in Gaza, a senior Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
“There are ongoing contacts through the mediating countries, and we are in continuous contact with the Americans,” says the official.
Overnight, US President Donald Trump called for Israel to “make the deal in Gaza” amid renewed efforts to broker a ceasefire and end the war.
Glastonbury festival says it’s ‘appalled’ by anti-Israel chants on stage amid ongoing fallout
Bobby Vylan of British duo Bob Vylan crowd surfing while performing on the West Holts Stage on the fourth day of the Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, England, on June 28, 2025. (Oli Scarff/AFP)
Glastonbury Festival says it is “appalled” by statements from punk act Bob Vylan, which led crowds attending the festival in chants of “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF” yesterday, sparking a police probe and wide condemnation.
“Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence,” it says in a statement.
“With almost 4,000 performances at Glastonbury 2025, there will inevitably be artists and speakers appearing on our stages whose views we do not share, and a performer’s presence here should never be seen as a tacit endorsement of their opinions and beliefs,” it adds.
The Israeli Embassy in Britain says it is “deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric expressed on stage at the Glastonbury Festival,” including by Irish band Kneecap.
A government spokesperson says Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy contacted the BBC’s director general to seek explanation on how the Bob Vylan show was broadcast.
“We strongly condemn the threatening comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury,” the spokesperson adds.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting says it was appalling that the anti-Israel chants had been made on stage, but adds that he was also appalled by violence committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
“I wish they’d take the violence of their own citizens towards Palestinians more seriously,” Streeting tells Sky News.
The minister refers to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and “the fact that Israeli settler terrorists attacked a Christian village this week, setting it on fire,” urging Israel to “get your own house in order.”
Coalition panel gives thumbs-up to bill aimed at selling off Kan news division
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation votes to give coalition backing to a bill that would privatize the Kan public broadcaster’s news division.
According to its explanatory notes, the legislation sponsored by Likud MK Galit Distel Atbaryan to sell off the Kan Reshet Bet news radio station, is “the first step” toward the “abolition of public broadcasting in Israel in the field of news and current affairs in Hebrew” — something which the bill asserts would increase competition and reduce government waste.
“The initiators of the bill believe that there is no reason for Israeli citizens to continue to finance out of their own pockets… this unnecessary broadcasting of news and current affairs in Hebrew,” the bill states.
“The road ahead is still long but I intend to walk it until the tax money of Second Israel stops funding a racist media entity that oppresses it,” tweets Distel Atbaryan — using a phrase referring to Israel’s Sephardic community as a minority oppressed by an Ashkenazi hegemony.
Critics allege the move is one of several aimed at muzzling Israel’s press.
The legislation is “intended to terrorize the Kan news division and its people and benefit those close to the government, who are trying to get their hands on radio frequencies that belong to the public, and advertising shares that will benefit the wealthy at the expense of the public,” Kan says in a statement.
The first thing that Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to do after the end of the war with Iran was to “dismantle public broadcasting in Israel,” the Journalists Association says, calling the bill “unconstitutional, unreasonable” and “fatal to press freedom.”
Court agrees to postpone Netanyahu testimony after security chiefs attend hearing
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen outside his office at the Knesset on June 11, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The Jerusalem District Court announces that it is canceling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled testimony in his criminal trial this week, following his appearance in a closed-door court session today on the matter.
Netanyahu requested in court that his scheduled testimony for the next two weeks be delayed due to diplomatic and national security issues, after two such requests were rejected on Friday.
The head of IDF Military Intelligence as well as the head of the Mossad were also present in today’s court hearing, both of whom explained to the judges why it was necessary to postpone the testimony hearings.
The move comes hours after US President Donald Trump insisted that the trial should be dropped because it was getting in the way of efforts to end the war in Gaza and bring hostages home, as well as diplomacy regarding Iran, sparking accusations that the premier was using major national security issues to escape prosecution.
The judges state in their ruling that the explanations provided had substantial additional information over what was presented in the requests on Friday, and therefore decided to cancel this week’s two scheduled hearings.
The court decided not to cancel next week’s hearings yet, but said that it would consider well-founded requests to do so if submitted.
Knesset speaker calls on judges to think beyond law, pave way for end to Netanyahu trial
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana calls on the High Court of Justice to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a two-week recess in his ongoing criminal trial, asserting that such a grace period could provide an opportunity to reach an agreement to end the trial or for the court to “expunge the indictment” against the premier on procedural grounds.
According to Hebrew media, Netanyahu is currently presenting his case for a two-week break in his trial in a closed hearing before the Jerusalem District Court.
“The court is now considering a request to postpone the hearings scheduled for [the coming] two weeks,” writes Ohana in a lengthy post on X in which he advances what he describes as a “practical, realistic, sane and logical proposal to end” the long-running legal saga.
The judges in Netanyahu’s case are supposed to be the “responsible adults” in the room and should entertain “considerations that are not purely legal,” he writes, arguing that the law is meant to serve the public interest and that “the trial is the means” to that end, “not the goal” in and of itself.
The comment appears to dovetail with claims from US President Donald Trump and allies of the premier that dismissing the trial will play a key component in clinching a deal to end the war in Gaza and free hostages still held there.
Ohana says the parties can end the trial by coming to some sort of agreement. Alternatively, he suggests, the court can declare a mistrial on procedural grounds and get rid of it that way.
“The judges have a real opportunity to take part in history, and to redeem the people of Israel. I hope they will not miss it,” Ohana asserts.
Court holds secret hearing on Netanyahu trial delay amid diplomatic, security efforts
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attending an unscheduled, closed-door hearing in the Jerusalem District Court to discuss his recent request to delay his testimony in his criminal trial by two weeks, according to Hebrew media reports.
Netanyahu had two requests to delay his testimony rejected by the court on Friday, which said that the reasons he gave for the request were not substantive enough.
The prime minister’s defense attorney Amit Hadad told the court that in the wake of the war with Iran, Netanyahu needed the postponement to attend to “diplomatic, national and security issues of the first order.”
According to reports, Military Intelligence head Shlomi Binder is summoned to the hearing at Netanyahu’s request. According to Channel 12 news, two senior officials from the National Security Council and the Mossad spy agency also testify.
Netanyahu’s first request was rejected due to a lack of details, and even when Hadad submitted Netanyahu’s schedule to the court for the coming two weeks as proof, the judges said the information and details provided were not sufficient to justify postponing the premier’s testimony.
The judges will need to make a final decision today, as Netanyahu is scheduled to testify in court tomorrow.
The hearing comes after US President Donald Trump claimed that Netanyahu’s trial needed to be called off because it was interfering with efforts to clinch a deal ending the war in Gaza and freeing hostages, as well as diplomacy with Iran.
Ex-prison warden says he was axed, falsely accused after refusing to go easy on Jewish inmates
View of the Ayalon prison in central Israeli town of Ramle. August 25, 2014. (Moshe Shai/FLASH90
A former prison warden who was dismissed from his post due to sexual harassment allegations says the claims were fabricated as part of a politically motivated plot to have him sacked over his refusal to exercise extra lenience with Jewish security prisoners.
In a petition submitted today to the High Court of Justice, Junior Commissioner Shai Parnasa, the former warden of Ayalon Prison, says that he was pressured by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Israel Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi to ease the prison conditions of Jewish detainees, particularly those jailed for nationalist violence.
According to Parnasa’s account, he flouted this pressure several times, leading his superiors to falsely accuse him of harassing a young female social worker.
The sexual harassment case against Parnasa was eventually closed by the State Attorney’s Office, which ruled him out as a suspect.
He was, however, convicted by an internal disciplinary court run by the Prison Service, and subsequently fired from his post.
Included in Parnasa’s petition are some 40 WhatsApp messages and recorded conversations said to prove that he was subject to pressure from Ben Gvir and Yaakobi, Ynet reports.
In one instance, Parnasa reportedly refused to grant visitation rights or end solitary confinement for convicted murderer Amiram Ben Uliel, who killed a Palestinian couple and their baby in a 2015 firebombing.
In another WhatsApp conversation, Ben Gvir’s adviser Shlomi Cohen requested that he grant a conjugal visit to Shlomo Pinto, who is serving an 11-year sentence for stabbing a Jewish man whom he mistook for an Arab, in a bungled revenge attack.
Parnasa filed the petition against Ben Gvir, Yaakobi, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, State Attorney Amit Aisman and the Shin Bet, among others.
Responding to the petition, Ben Gvir accuses the ex-warden of “trying to escape responsibility by fabricating accusations against a third party.”
“The incident involving the senior prison service official who was convicted after confessing to attempting to force himself on a young female prison guard is extremely serious,” his office says in a statement. “During Minister Ben Gvir’s tenure, there is a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment and abuse of authority.”
Gas prices to stay steady despite fears of war crunch
Despite fears of rising fuel prices due to the war with Iran and damage to major energy infrastructure, gas prices are set to only go up by a single agora ($0.003) to NIS 7.15 per liter (approximately $7.81/gallon) on July 1, the Energy Ministry announces.
The tiny increase is credited to the dollar weakening against the shekel by 4.18 percent, which offsets a 4.7% rise in the price of fuel shipments, according to the ministry.
Global oil futures rose precipitously during the war, but dropped off sharply following the announcement of a ceasefire on June 23, though they remained higher than before fighting began 12 days earlier.
Gazans report 5 killed by Israeli fire near aid site
Palestinians inspect damaged tents after an Israeli strike hit a displacement camp in Gaza City, Saturday, June 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinian and Arab media outlets report that five people were killed and dozens more injured by Israeli army fire near an aid distribution site operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip.
No footage from the scene has been published so far. There is no comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
According to health authorities in the Hamas-run Strip, nearly 500 people have been killed by suspected Israeli forces near GHF aid distribution sites, which are set up in areas controlled by the IDF and far from population centers. GHF has denied responsibility for the deaths, noting that it is operating in a war zone.
Responding to Trump, Yair Golan alleges hostage deal held captive to Netanyahu’s legal fate
The Democrats chairman Yair Golan accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of holding the hostages in Gaza captive for political ends after US President Donald Trump appears to link the issue to that of the premier’s ongoing criminal trial.
“Trump’s proposal proves: The hostages are held by Hamas, but they are captive to Netanyahu’s interests,” Golan states in a post on X.
In a late-night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that the United States was “not going to stand” for the continued prosecution of Netanyahu, whom he described as a “war hero” targeted by “out-of-control prosecutors.”
Trump argued that “this travesty of ‘justice’ will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations.”
“The United States of America spends billions of dollar(s) a year, far more than on any other nation, protecting and supporting Israel,” noted Trump in what some in Israel took as an implicit threat.
Shin Bet says 60 Hamas members nabbed in largest West Bank anti-terror operation in decade
Weapons captured by Israeli forces from a Hamas network in the Hebron area of the West Bank, in a handout photo published June 29, 2025. (Shin Bet)
The Shin Bet security agency says it arrested over 60 Hamas operatives in recent months as part of one of the largest crackdowns on a West Bank terror network in recent years.
In a statement, the agency says that in the past three months during joint operations with the IDF and police, “a significant, complex, and large-scale Hamas infrastructure was exposed in Hebron,” accusing those involved of planning a variety of types of attacks “in the immediate time frame.”
“This is the largest and most complex investigation by the Shin Bet in the Judea and Samaria area in the past decade,” a senior Shin Bet official says in a statement, referring to the West Bank.
The Shin Bet says its interrogations found that senior Hamas operatives from the Hebron area, most of whom were formerly jailed by Israel, “worked to recruit, arm, and train additional Hamas operatives from the area to carry out shooting and bombing attacks against Israeli targets.”
“It was also revealed that members of the infrastructure conducted firearms training, gathered intelligence on Israeli targets, manufactured explosive material, and assembled explosive devices, all with the aim of carrying out major attacks on behalf of Hamas” in the West Bank and in Israel, the agency says. No attacks were actually carried out, though some of those arrested were accused of having taken part in a deadly shooting nearly 15 years ago.
A Hamas hideout area in the Hebron area of the West Bank, in a handout photo published June 29, 2025. (Shin Bet)
Over 60 members of Hamas involved in 10 linked terror cells were detained by Israeli forces, the Shin Bet says. During their interrogations, they provided information that led to even more suspects, though no details are provided about the other arrests.
The Shin Bet says it also captured 22 firearms and 11 grenades, along with other weapons, and large amounts of ammunition. Additionally, an underground arsenal and hideout was uncovered, it says.
Based on information provided under interrogation, some of those arrested are accused of involvement in an August 2010 shooting attack at Bani Naim Junction near Hebron, in which four Israelis — Yitzhak and Tali Ames, and two passengers in their car, Kochava Even Chaim and Avishai Schindler — were murdered.
Soldiers guard as an army bulldozer blocks the road near the West Bank village of Bani Naim, January 11, 2017. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
Additionally, the interrogations led to the arrests of several suspects involved in supplying guns to a Hamas cell that shot and killed Cpl. Avraham Fetena, a Military Police soldier in a November 2023 attack on a West Bank checkpoint on Route 60, south of Jerusalem, the Shin Bet says.
“The exposure of the infrastructure, which operated covertly while maintaining compartmentalization between the different cells, constitutes a significant thwarting of Hamas’s intentions to carry out a series of major attacks in Israel,” the Shin Bet official adds.
Indictments are being filed against the suspects, accusing them of severe crimes, including heading a terror organization, and the equivalent of attempted murder and attempted conspiracy to murder.
Iran skeptical Israel will stick to ceasefire, threatens ‘strong response’
Iran is highly doubtful that Israel will maintain the ceasefire that ended an air war between the two countries, the Iranian armed forces chief of staff told Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman on Sunday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reports.
“Since we have complete doubts about the enemy’s adherence to its commitments, including the ceasefire, we are prepared to give it a strong response if it repeats the aggression,” Abdolrahim Mousavi says.
B’nai B’rith pans church group for accusing Israel of apartheid, possible genocide
B’nai B’rith International has condemned a statement by the World Council of Churches accusing Israel of “apartheid” and possible “genocide,” and calling for sanctions.
The WCC, an organization bringing together 356 cross-denominational churches from more than 120 countries who represent over 580 million Christians worldwide, issued a sharp rebuke of Israel at its central committee meeting in Johannesburg on June 24.
While claiming that it stands against racism and antisemitism, the WCC said it was in “deep lamentation and outrage” that Israel is “flagrantly violating international humanitarian and human rights law as well as the most basic principles of morality.” It called on states, churches, and international institutions to “impose consequences for violations of international law, including targeted sanctions, divestment, and arms embargoes.”
B’nai B’rith says the WCC is “beyond the pale for engagement by the mainstream Jewish community,” calling on its backers to redirect their support to non-political organizations instead.
“Tragically, the WCC on its current trajectory cannot be a credible contributor to peace, justice and reconciliation,” says B’nai B’rith’s director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs,
David Michaels. “As long as it habitually singles out a Jewish democracy alone for the wildest possible demonization—and shows zero actual concern for the lives, legitimacy and human rights of its diverse people—its claim to care about antisemitism is a forgery.”
“Israel is the Middle East’s sole democracy; it has protected Christian life and pursued peace with every single Arab neighbor,” Michaels continues. “Yet the WCC is moved only to discern and deplore ‘occupation,’ ‘apartheid’ and even ‘genocide’ in the case of Israel. Even now, Iran and its allied exterminationists go unmentioned. This is nothing less than false witness and moral bankruptcy.”
Rishon Lezion man accused of spying on apartments, car dealership for Iran
State prosecutors filed an indictment against a Rishon Lezion resident accused of espionage for Iran, charging him with contact with a foreign agent and providing intelligence to the enemy.
Dennis Lyakhov, 30, is thought to have come into contact with an Iranian agent via the Telegram messaging app and carried out various tasks at his behest in exchange for money.
The defendant was in touch with the foreign agent from late February to mid-March, and had been residing in Latvia for part of this period, the indictment charges. The indictment states that he knowingly carried out the tasks for an Iranian agent.
According to prosecutors, while he was in Latvia, the defendant was paid NIS 70 ($20) to write the words “FUCK BIBI” on a piece of paper and film himself setting it on fire.
Upon returning to Israel, Lyakhov was told by the agent to film a street and apartment buildings in Petah Tikva and send the documentation. However, he instead went to a separate location in the city and filmed that instead. The agent paid him NIS 254 ($75) for carrying out the task.
He was later enlisted to go to a car dealership in Netanya and inquire about the prices of seven different vehicles while filming the interaction. He was paid in advance, but did not follow through with the task.
Prosecutors are requesting that the Central District Court in Lod keep the defendant in custody until the end of legal proceedings against him.
Argentina accuses Iran of threatening IAEA head Grossi
Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, at the IAEA's Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria on June 16, 2025. (Joe Klamar / AFP)
Argentina has condemned what it said were threats against UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi after Iran rejected his request to visit nuclear facilities bombed by Israel and the United States.
Tehran has accused Grossi, an Argentine, of “betrayal of his duties” for not condemning the Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites this month, and Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency which he leads.
Argentina’s foreign ministry expresses its support for Grossi, saying it “categorically condemns the threats against him coming from Iran.”
The ministry also urges Iranian authorities to guarantee the safety of the IAEA chief and his team, and “refrain from any action that could put them at risk,” according to a statement on social media platform X.
It does not specify what threats Grossi has received.
On Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that “Grossi’s insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent.”
Iran has said it believes an IAEA resolution on June 12 that accused Iran of ignoring its nuclear obligations served as an “excuse” for the 12-day war Israel launched on June 13.
In an interview with CBS News that aired Saturday, Grossi said Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium “in a matter of months,” despite damage to several nuclear facilities from the recent strikes.
Troops carried out multiple raids in Syria in recent days, IDF says
Troops of the Alexandroni Brigade operate in southern Syria, in a handout photo published on June 29, 2025 (Israel Defense Forces)
Over the past week, Israeli troops conducted several raids in southern Syria, the IDF says.
Reservists of the Alexandroni Brigade nabbed several terror suspects and brought them to Israel for questioning, and raided weapon depots, according to the military.
The IDF has been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in December, mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries.
Troops have been operating in areas up to around 15 kilometers (9 miles) deep into Syria, aiming to capture weapons that Israel says could pose a threat to the country if they fall into the hands of “hostile forces.”
Ukraine says hundreds of drones, missiles fired overnight in largest Russian air attack yet
This handout photograph taken and released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on June 29, 2025, shows firefighters extinguishing a fire in a residential building following a Russian attack in the city of Smila, Cherkasy region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Handout / Ukrainian State Emergency Service / AFP)
Ukraine says an volley of hundreds of Russian missiles and drones fired overnight marked the largest yet aerial attack of the three-year-old war, part of an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the conflict.
Russia fired a total of 537 aerial weapons at Ukraine, including 477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles, Ukraine’s air force says. Of these, 249 were shot down and 226 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine’s air force, tells the Associated Press that the overnight onslaught was “the most massive air strike” on the country, taking into account both drones and various types of missiles. The attack targeted several regions, including western Ukraine, far from the frontline.
Kherson regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said one person died in a drone strike. Six people were wounded in Cherkasy, including a child, according to regional Gov. Ihor Taburets.
In the Lviv region in the far west of Ukraine, a large-scale fire broke out at an industrial facility in the city of Drohobych following a drone attack that also forced parts of the city to lose power.
Ukraine’s air force also said one of the F-16 warplanes Ukraine received from its Western partners to help fight Russia’s invasion crashed after sustaining damage while shooting down air targets. The pilot died when the fighter jet went down.
During the attack, Poland and allied countries scrambled aircraft to ensure the safety of Polish airspace, the Polish air force says.
Meeting German minister amid rubble of missile-struck building, Sa’ar urges Europeans to redeploy sanctions on Iran
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, left, and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar visit the scene where a ballistic missile fired from Iran impacted in Bat Yam on June 29, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90)
Standing at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Bat Yam alongside Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar calls for European powers to initiate “snapback” sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.
“Now the international system has a duty to take concrete steps against the Iranian nuclear program, in light of the Iranian regime’s attacks on the IAEA and its announcement that it will stop cooperating with it,” says Sa’ar. “It’s time for the E3 countries – the UK, Germany and France – to activate the snapback, a concrete step that is to their disposal.”
Under the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, signatories can trigger a mechanism to automatically reinstate UN sanctions on Iran over its noncompliance, an option that expires in October.
Dobrindt, making the first visit by a senior foreign official since the war between Iran and Israel ended last week, calls for increased backing for Israel.
“We must deepen our support for Israel,” Dobrindt says amid the rubble of a June 15 Iranian strike that killed nine people, including three children.
Lapid lambastes Smotrich for comments against soldiers
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid lashes out at Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for criticizing Israeli soldiers who used live fire while trying to contain a group of violent settlers during a Friday night riot, joining others in his Yesh Atid Party who have spoken out against the hard-right politician.
“Jewish terrorists beat IDF soldiers, punched a battalion commander defending them and Smotrich says that the ones who ‘crossed the line’ are not the extremist criminals but actually the IDF soldiers there to protect them,” Lapid writes on X. “Our lives are in the hands of criminals.”
Friday night saw throngs of rioting settlers attack soldiers at the Palestinian village of Kafr Malik near Ramallah, after the forces arrived there to prevent them from rampaging in the village. Six Israelis were arrested following the violence. Smotrich expressed anger at reports that troops fired in the air during the incident.
Dvir Kariv, a former top official with the Shin Bet’s division tasked with dealing with Jewish terror, tells the Ynet news site that violent settlers are being emboldened by Smotrich and fellow far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel national security minister.
“The hilltop youth feel they have a tailwind from the leadership, from Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and so they are ramping up [violence,]” he says, claiming that the Shin Bet is actually making more use of administrative detention, which allows them to hold suspects without charge, in reaction to Ben Gvir. “Hilltop youth are humiliating IDF soldiers and need to be punished severely. The moment Smotrich and Ben Gvir don’t issue condemnations, [the violence] intensifies. They are backing it.”
After Trump intervenes again, critics accuse Netanyahu of trading Gaza deal for end of trial
Opposition politicians accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of selling out Israel’s national security for his own personal interests, after US President Donald Trump demanded for the second time the cancellation of the premier’s ongoing criminal trial.
Democrats MK Naama Lazimi argues that by “trading his indictment in exchange for a political settlement and an end to the war,” Netanyahu demonstrated his unfitness for office, alleging that he is “conditioning the future of Israel and our children on his trial.”
“Those behind President Trump’s tweet are Netanyahu and his corrupt gang,” agrees fellow Democrats lawmaker Gilad Kariv, condemning Netanyahu and his circle’s “willingness to ‘play’ with the national security of the State of Israel and the issue of the hostages in order to save Netanyahu from conviction in court.”
Netanyahu is “acting against the Israeli public interest” by linking his legal troubles with the issue of the hostages and regional normalization agreements, tweets Yesh Atid MK Karine Elharrar, charging that Trump’s post had conditioned US aid on the prime minister’s trial.
In a late night post on his Truth Social platform, Trump stated that the United States was “not going to stand” for the continued prosecution of Netanyahu, whom he described as a “war hero” targeted by “out-of-control prosecutors.”
Trump argued that “this travesty of ‘justice’ will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations.”
“The United States of America spends billions of dollar(s) a year, far more than on any other nation, protecting and supporting Israel,” noted Trump in what some in Israel took as an implicit threat.
“MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!!” he added in a second post on Saturday night.
In a lengthy Truth Social post on Thursday evening, Trump professed to be shocked that Israel was “continuing its ridiculous Witch Hunt against their Great War Time Prime Minister,” declaring that his trial “should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State.”
Netanyahu thanks Trump for posting against graft trial
A demonstrator in a clown costume with a mask depicting US President Donald Trump holds a baby puppet depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an anti-government protest calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip by Palestinian militants since the 2023 October 7 attacks, in Tel Aviv on June 28, 2025. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanks US President Donald Trump after he demands for a second time within days that Israeli prosecutors drop the graft cases against the premier, appearing to welcome foreign intervention in domestic judicial proceedings.
“Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump,” Netanyahu posts on X atop a screen capture of Trump’s Truth Social price. “Together, we make will make the Middle East Great Again!”
Thank you again, @realDonaldTrump.
Together, we make will make the Middle East Great Again! https://t.co/hfkct0SYlF
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) June 29, 2025
Trump on Saturday night posted that “it is terrible” that Netanyahu is being prosecuted on breach of trust and bribery charges, downplaying the accusations and describing them as a witch hunt, and claiming that they were interfering with efforts to reach a deal in Gaza and diplomacy over Iran.
It came days after a similar Trump post drew widespread criticism, including from Netanyahu allies, as improper foreign meddling in internal Israeli affairs.
Jordan refuses to play Israel in youth basketball World Cup — reports
After weeks of speculation, Jordan’s national basketball team has informed the international basketball federation FIBA that it will not field a team to play against Israel today in the 2025 Under-19 Basketball World Cup, according to Hebrew media reports.
Israel will automatically gain a 20-0 technical victory over Jordan. It defeated Switzerland handily 102-77 last night in its first-ever U-19 World Cup game, while Jordan fell to the Dominican Republic.
“On behalf of the Basketball Association, I regret the decision of the Jordanian team,” says Israel Basketball Association chairman Amos Frishman, according to the Walla news site.
“I had hoped that the Jordanians would still come to play to show everyone that it is possible otherwise, especially during this time. I believe that sport is a bridge between peoples and cultures and not a political arena. I hope that in the future there will be no doubt about holding of these games.”
New division readying to start guarding entire Jordan border
The IDF’s new 96th Division, set to be responsible for the entire Jordan border area, completed a first division-level drill last week, the military announces.
The exercise on Thursday simulated “emergency scenarios and rapid response to sudden events, while increasing the division’s readiness for combat,” the IDF says.
The IDF adds that the drill was “conducted in cooperation with various security bodies and local authorities.”
The 96th Division, which goes by the nickname Gilad, completed a rapid formation within a 48-hour period during the war with Iran, after initially being set for deployment on August 1. It took up responsibility for the northern Jordan Valley area.
The division is eventually set to operate from the Israel-Jordan-Syria tri-border area in the north down to Ramon Airport in southern Israel, also encompassing the Yoav Regional Brigade, currently part of the 80th “Edom” Division. Part of the territory includes the West Bank.
Army tells civilians to leave northern Gaza again as offensive ratchets up
Palestinians gather around a crater caused by an Israeli strike on a displacement tent camp in Gaza City, June 28, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)
The IDF re-issues a wide evacuation warning for Palestinians in the Gaza City and Jabalia areas in the northern Gaza Strip.
The area was already ordered to evacuate on May 29, and has been part of a no-go zone since.
Civilians are instructed to head for the Mawasi area on the coast in Gaza’s south.
#عاجل ‼️تحذير الى كل المتواجدين في منطقة مدينة غزة وجباليا وفي أحياء الزيتون الشرقي، البلدة القديمة، التركمان، اجديدة، التفاح، الدرج، الصبرة، جباليا البلد، جباليا النزله، معسكر جباليا، الروضة، النهضة، الزهور، النور، السلام وتل الزعتر
⭕️من أجل أمنكم، اخلوا فوراً جنوباً الى منطقة… pic.twitter.com/WdIPuWZiax— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) June 29, 2025
“The IDF is operating with extreme force in these areas, and these military operations will escalate, intensify, and extend westward to the city center to destroy the capabilities of the terrorist organizations,” says the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee in a post on X.
“Hamas is bringing a disaster upon you. Returning to dangerous combat zones poses a danger to your lives,” he adds.
‘Make the deal in Gaza,’ Trump demands in late-night post
US President Donald Trump arrives on Marine One at the White House, April 27, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
In a late-night post online, US President Donald Trump urges Israel and Hamas to make a deal in Gaza aimed at returning hostages kidnapped on October 7.
“MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT,” he writes on his Truth Social network, appearing to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to clinch the ceasefire agreement, which Trump earlier predicted would be inked within a week.
The post, which is bereft of context, comes hours after Trump called for a second time for Israeli prosecutors to close their case against Netanyahu, saying “he is right now in the process of negotiating a Deal with Hamas, which will include getting the Hostages back.”
Iran claims 71 were killed in Israeli strike on Evin prison
Illustrative: A 2008 photo of Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran, where a number of foreigners and dual nationals have been detained over the years. (CC BY-SA 2.0 Ehsan Iran/Wikipedia)
A spokesperson for Iran’s judiciary says an Israeli strike on Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison last week killed 71 people, including visiting families and people living in nearby buildings.
“In the attack on Evin prison, 71 people were martyred including administrative staff, youth doing their military service, detainees, family members of detainees who were visiting them and neighbors who lived in the prison’s vicinity,” Jahangir says in remarks carried on the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said on June 23 that an Israeli airstrike hit the gate of the complex, in what was apparently a move meant to help prisoners escape. The facility, infamous among activists for torture and rights abuses, holds political prisoners including journalists, academics, human rights activists, foreign nationals and others.
Israël-Iran: Téhéran affirme que la frappe israélienne contre la prison d'Evin a fait 71 mortshttps://t.co/Ek13YMsJx8 pic.twitter.com/74FoUZflEo
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) June 29, 2025
A picture published by the news site shows what appears to be significant damage to the facility, with windows blown out and a courtyard strewn with rubble.
Jahangir says the attack damaged a health center, visitor’s hall and prosecutor’s office.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Saudi defense chief speaks with new head of Iranian military — Riyadh
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz spoke by phone with Iran’s new military chief Abdolrahim Mousavi, the State-run Saudi Press Agency reports.
The two “reviewed bilateral relations in the defense field and discussed regional developments as well as efforts to maintain security and stability,” according to the agency, which says the call was initiated by Mousavi.
Longtime foes, Iran and Saudi Arabia have in recent years moved toward mending ties under a China-brokered rapprochement.
Mousavi was appointed to the post after his predecessor Mohammad Hossein Baqeri was killed by Israel in the opening hours of the Israel-Iran war that began on June 13.
Smotrich slammed after criticizing soldiers for using live fire during settler riot
Opposition politicians are pushing back at hawkish Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over his condemnation of soldiers who opened fire while attempting to stop settlers from rioting in the West Bank Friday night, both for not backing soldiers and for appearing to discriminate between civilians based on their religion.
“I don’t get it, so live fire against Druze, Arabs, Christians, Circassians, that’s cool? Listen, you miserable racist, it’s an embarrassment that you are a minister in the state of Israel,” Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari writes on X.
Throngs of rioting settlers had attacked troops, including a high-ranking officer, at the Palestinian village of Kafr Malik near Ramallah, after the forces arrived there to prevent them from attacking the village. During the incident, soldiers responded to a group of some 30 settlers throwing stones at them by firing into the air.
Smotrich, who is also a minister within the Defense Ministry, had written that “the IDF’s live fire against Jews is a forbidden and dangerous crossing of a red line which requires an in-depth investigation… those responsible must be held accountable.”
Moshe Tur Paz, another Yesh Atid MK, writes that “when a minister backs violence against soldiers and discriminates between rock throwers based on the religion of the thrower, it’s a sign that the sun is about to set,” in apparent reference to Lin Yutang’s famous maxim.
Inbar Bezek, a former Yesh Atid MK, notes that when her partner Ziv was a soldier in the mid 1990s, he would guard the Jewish settlement in Hebron, and was also spit at by a settler, naming the alleged assailant as Orit Struck, who is currently a minister in Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party.
“Instead of unequivocally condemning the attack on soldiers… [Smotrich] hems and haws and actually backs the rioters. Those who spit at first will later throw stones and go on to carrying out ramming attacks on soldiers,” she writes on X.
Trump hails ‘great victory’ as major tax-cut and spending bill clears Senate hurdle
The Republican-controlled US Senate has advanced President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill in a key procedural vote, raising the odds that lawmakers will be able to pass his “big, beautiful bill” in the coming days.
The measure, Trump’s top legislative goal, passed its first procedural hurdle in a 51 to 49 vote, with two Republican senators voting against it.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump hails several Republican lawmakers, including one who initially opposed the bill, for what he calls a ” GREAT VICTORY.”
The president was monitoring the vote from the Oval Office late into the night, a senior White House official says.
The vote came after several hours of negotiation as Republican leaders and Vice President JD Vance sought to persuade last-minute holdouts in a series of closed-door negotiations.
The procedural vote, which would start debate on the 940-page megabill to fund Trump’s top immigration, border, tax-cut and military priorities, began after hours of delay.
It then remained open for more than three hours of standstill as three Republican senators — Thom Tillis, Ron Johnson and Rand Paul — joined Democrats to oppose the legislation. Three others — Senators Rick Scott, Mike Lee and Cynthia Lummis – negotiated with Republican leaders into the night in hopes of securing bigger spending cuts.
In the end, Wisconsin Senator Johnson flipped his no vote to yes, leaving only Paul and Tillis opposed among Republicans.
The megabill is set to extend 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s main legislative achievement during his first term as president, cut other taxes and boost spending on the military and border security.
Critics say it will add trillions to the national debt.
Reports okayed on missile damage to apartment tower, mall near IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv
A luxury residential building close to the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv was damaged by an Iranian ballistic missile strike early on in the recent 12-day war with the Islamic Republic, the Haaretz daily reports.
This information had not previously been made public inside of Israel, as authorities gagged reports that included information on impact locations, arguing that they could be used by Iran to better calibrate its missiles.
According to Haaretz, the 32-story residential tower, located close to the Kaplan Street entrance to the IDF headquarters, caught on fire as a result of the missile impact, and its residents had to be evacuated.
Separately, Channel 12 reports that the Azrieli Mall, also located in the vicinity of the Kirya, was also damaged by a ballistic missile strike.
The main building is unharmed, but several storefronts that open out directly onto the street suffered extensive damage, estimated at over a million shekels. Some damage to the mall’s facade can also be seen from the street.
Days after the strike, looters stole large amounts of merchandise and cash from the damaged stores, the report says.
Over the course of the 12-day direct conflict, Iran launched over 500 ballistic missiles at Israel, killing 28 people and wounding thousands.
‘We won’t stand for this’: Trump doubles down on attack against Israeli prosecutors in Netanyahu’s corruption trial
US President Donald Trump arrives for a social dinner at the 'Huis ten Bosch' Royal Palace during a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Heads of State and Government summit in The Hague, on June 24, 2025 (JOHN THYS / AFP)
For the second time within days, US President Donald Trump lambasts the ongoing criminal trial against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that it harms efforts to strike deals in Gaza and with Iran.
While not directly threatening the prosecution, Trump highlights the billions of dollars in US aid to Israel before declaring, “We are not going to stand for this.”
“It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu,” Trump writes on Truth Social.
“He is a war hero, and a prime minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring great success in getting rid of the dangerous nuclear threat in Iran,” Trump continues.
“Importantly, he is right now in the process of negotiating a deal with Hamas, which will include getting the hostages back.”
“How is it possible that the prime minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a courtroom all day long, over nothing,” he adds, downplaying the charges against Netanyahu while calling the corruption trial a “witch hunt.”
“This travesty of ‘justice’ will interfere with both Iran and Hamas negotiations,” Trump claims.
“In other words, it is insanity doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu.”
“The United States of America spends billions of dollar(s) a year, far more than on any other nation, protecting and supporting Israel,” he adds
“We are not going to stand for this,” Trump says, adding that “this greatly tarnishes our victory.
“Let Bibi go. He’s got a big job to do,” Trump adds.
Iran could resume uranium enrichment in ‘matter of months,’ IAEA chief says
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi attends an extraordinary Board of Governors meeting at the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria on June 23, 2025. (Joe Klamar / AFP)
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi says Iran likely will be able to begin to produce enriched uranium “in a matter of months,” despite damage to several nuclear facilities from US and Israeli attacks, CBS News says.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the extent of the damage to the nuclear sites is “serious,” but that the details are unknown, while US President Donald Trump insists Iran’s nuclear program has been set back “decades.”
But Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, says “some is still standing.”
“They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” Grossi said Friday, according to a transcript of the interview released Saturday.
Another key question is whether Iran was able to relocate some or all of its estimated 408.6-kilo (900-pound) stockpile of highly enriched uranium before the attacks.
The uranium in question is enriched to 60 percent — above levels for civilian usage but below weapons grade. That material, if further refined, would theoretically be sufficient to produce more than nine nuclear bombs.
Grossi admitted to CBS: “We don’t know where this material could be.”
“So some could have been destroyed as part of the attack, but some could have been moved. So there has to be, at some point, a clarification,” he says in the interview.
For now, Iranian lawmakers voted to suspend cooperation with the IAEA and Tehran rejected Grossi’s request for a visit to the damaged sites, especially Fordo, the main uranium enrichment facility, which was struck by the US last Sunday.
“We need to be in a position to ascertain, to confirm what is there, and where is it and what happened,” Grossi said.
IDF investigating after settler reportedly injured by live fire during attack on soldiers
The military says it is investigating after an Israeli settler was reportedly injured by live fire during an attack on soldiers in the West Bank last night.
Overnight Friday-Saturday, a 14-year-old was taken from the Ramallah area to the hospital in light condition after being hit by a bullet in his torso.
The IDF says that in the area of the violence near the Palestinian village of Kafr Malik, “no live fire was conducted toward Israeli civilians.”
“The battalion commander who operated in the area did not fire live rounds at all,” the IDF says, referring to the officer who was assaulted by the settlers.
In a nearby area at the same time, settlers hurled stones at an army vehicle, and troops fired three warning shots in the air in response, according to the military.
“It is being looked into if there is a relation between the incident and the claim that an Israeli civilian was hurt by live fire,” the IDF says.
read more: